This invention relates to a power distribution system, and more particularly to power interface apparatus which incorporate various power supplies of different manufacturers into one hot swappable automatic current sharing system which can be configured to a user's need with voltage, current, and wattage all as variables.
Electrical and electronic systems incorporating integrated circuits and electrical components have varying power requirements depending on the size and number of components to which power must be supplied. The requirements may include simple battery operated circuitry to various standard power supplies or customized supplies. Although customized power supplies can be designed for any system requirements, such customization can become extremely expensive. Using standard off the shelf power supplies which are readily available, considerably cheaper than customized power supplies, and can be more easily replaced or provided in redundancy so that the system does not fail when the power supply fails is a better solution. However, using such supplies may not allow configuration of the power supplies to the needs of the user with respect to voltage, current or wattage. In addition, individual power supply units would not be practical for supplying power of various needs to, for example, a local area telephone system for the operation of a plurality of telephone consoles connected to several hundred lines. The requirements for power would vary with the size of the system and would require some kind of redundancy to provide a backup system in the event that a power supply fails.